This invention relates to an apparatus for communicating with a portable data carrier and to a method for communicating between an apparatus and a portable data carrier.
It is known to carry out a contactless communication between a reading device and a portable data carrier, such as e.g. a chip card, smart card, etc. For example, RFID (radio frequency identification) systems are used for contactless communication in order to carry out a communication between the reading device and the portable data carrier via an alternating magnetic field of the reading device. In RFID systems, the reading device possesses an antenna coil for producing the alternating magnetic field. The portable data carrier likewise comprises an antenna coil in order to draw the required energy from the alternating magnetic field. A combination of the antenna coil with a circuit of the portable data carrier is designated a transponder. Via the alternating magnetic field, data are also transferred between the transponder and the reading device.
It is furthermore known to equip a portable data carrier with an optical interface, namely an infrared interface, which can be configured as a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus or a switchable transmitting/receiving apparatus, and constitutes an alternative data transfer channel. To use the infrared interface of the portable data carrier for transmitting data to a reading device, the infrared interface must be supplied with sufficient energy. For this purpose it has been proposed to utilize the conventional antenna coil in order to supply the infrared interface with sufficient energy via the alternating magnetic field of the reading device. The data and energy transfer is effected here via two different, contactless interfaces. The additional infrared interface constitutes an additional data transfer channel which can be configured as a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus or a switchable transmitting/receiving apparatus.
When employing portable data carriers having two different, contactless interfaces, there is the problem for communication apparatuses that there must be provided, besides an interface to a contactless-type reading device, an additional interface for processing optical signals. This leads to problems in particular with the software applications implemented on the apparatuses, normally requiring that an existing application software be reworked.
Thus, a solution is required for how a reading device originally adapted only for contactless communication with a portable data carrier via a single contactless interface can be subsequently fitted in a simple manner such that a data communication between the reading device and the data carrier can also be effected via another contactless interface. For this purpose, DE 10 2005 053 210 B3 proposes converting infrared signals into contactless communication signals by means of an accordingly configured transponder. The disadvantage of this solution is the fact that a further transponder for the data conversion is required in addition to the reading device.